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Harry Potter Fans Furious After J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Trans Comments

Beloved author JK Rowling faces becoming just "author JK Rowling" after yesterday. The Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts author took to Twitter to post a message in support of Maya Forstater, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist who was fired from her job after a series of transphobic tweets. The case came to prominence yesterday when a British tribunal ruled against Forstater, concluding that it was not fair to her co-workers as she would clearly continue to behave in this way, "even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

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Beloved author J.K. Rowling now faces becoming just “author J.K. Rowling.”

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The Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts creator took to Twitter recently to post a message in support of Maya Forstater, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist whose contract was not renewed at her job after she made a series of transphobic tweets. Yesterday, a British tribunal ruled against Forstater, concluding that her boss was right to fire her as she would continue to behave in a way that “violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

For some bizarre reason, Rowling leapt to her defense, posting the following: “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?” It’s a statement that echoes the very worst of transphobic campaigners online, who regularly bombard trans people with abuse and launch campaigns against them.

Harry Potter fans were dismayed and disgusted that someone who preaches broadly progressive views in their books would turn against them. And so, with that, J.K. Rowling is in the process of being officially cancelled.

Here’s a selection of the anger she’s facing today:

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It’s also worth saying that, despite her (now dwindling) legions of fans and millions of pounds, Rowling has been on something of a downward trajectory for a couple of years now. Folks have rightly called her out for her pointless and weird pronouncements on the Harry Potter universe and its characters, she’s been unable to respond to criticism of her hook-nosed, greedy goblin bankers being an anti-semitic stereotype and she was responsible for the screenplay to the critically mauled and unexpected flop Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Maybe people will look back on December 19th, 2019 as the moment that the Harry Potter franchise truly lost its momentum?